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Fishbein, editor of the highly popular and successful Kosher Palette, has
produced a cookbook focusing on elegant kosher cuisine that is easy to produce
by the modern at-home cook. She precedes each section with a description of
a festival and its customs, and includes a suggested menu and kosher wine list.
Interspersed with vibrant color photographs, the recipes make full use of the
growing range of kosher ingredients available, and she has no compunction in
saving time and effort by using store-bought sauces in some dishes, such as
Tarragon Chicken. Traditional recipes also appear, but are usually given a
new twist-the visually pleasing Tri-color Gefilte Fish once again utilizes
a store-bought item but enhances both it and the conventional presentation
by layering to make a terrine. Useful tips are added where needed, and Fishbein
indicates when a recipe is parve (neutral) or dairy. She also offers a comprehensive
Passover section that includes a chart of all the recipes that can be used
for this festival, with its additional dietary requirements, as well as the
steps needed to adapt many others. With kosher cookbooks becoming more sophisticated,
Fishbein has produced a volume that straddles that delicate line between modern
and traditional and between refined cuisine and everyday ease.
(June) Forecast:
The Kosher Palette was highly successful in the Jewish community by word of
mouth, and this book-boosted by a $50,000 ad/promo and a 50,000-copy first
printing- will likely reach a broader market.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Several years ago, The Kosher Palette, an elegant cookbook, was published
as a fund-raiser by a New Jersey high school yeshivah. Susie Fishbein was its
editor.
Now Ms. Fishbein has edited another kosher cookbook of “picture-perfect food
for the holidays and every day:” Kosher by Design (Artscroll/Shaar Press,
$32.95 hardbound, 304 pages). For starters, the cover is laminated and conceals
wire binding. There are 120 mouth-watering color photographs and more than 250 recipes.
The editor explains that this cookbook was entitled Kosher by Design because, “This
book is for you, the cook who chooses to cook kosher and who wants to present
beautifully designed dishes with style and grace.”
Each subject is attached to a holiday. Shabbat is appetizers; Rosh Hashanah is soups;
erev Yom Kippur is salads; Sukkot is poultry; Simchat Torah is meat;
Chanukah is fish; Tu b’Shvat is pasta and dairy; Purim is side dishes; Passover
is Passover; Shavuot is dessert.
Although the chapter attached to the holiday features specific recipes, the
menu for each holiday has dishes from throughout the cookbook.
Each chapter is introduced with an explanation and elegant photographs to
illustrate how to create designed dishes for a typical meal, and a wine list
accompanies each chapter.
Many of the recipes have their own introductory remarks. Although the steps
are not numbered, each step is in a separate paragraph. All dishes are designated
meat, dairy or pareve. Shaded paragraphs offer hints as well as tips on food
preparation, table decorations, floral arrangements and other ideas for entertaining.
Some of the more unusual kosher recipes include tri-color gefilte fish and
won-ton-wrapped chicken with apricot dipping sauce as appetizers; porcini-mushroom-and-onion
soup, arugula salad with pomegranate-raspberry vinaigrette. For main entrees,
one might try honey mustard Cornish hens, rack of lamb with fig-port-shallot
sauce or pistachio-crusted salmon with vanilla rum butter over smashed sweet
potatoes.
Side dishes include roasted garlic mashed potato galette, or acorn squash with frosted cranberries.
Desserts, such as chocolate palmiers, warm apples
and pear fruit beggar’s purse and tiramisu cheesecake will send you to the
kitchen at top speed.
This is a cookbook that can compete with any fine cookbook on the market and
would make a welcome gift to any kosher hostess.
Culinary snobs tend to snicker at kosher cookbooks. Despite some of the fabulous
new kosher wines, chefs and restaurants that hold their own with the best,
the perception persists that kosher means second-class.
Until now. Kosher By Design: Picture-perfect Food for the Holidays and
Every Day published by ArtScroll/Shaar Press is chic, elegant and includes
upscale wine lists that would raise more than a few connoisseurs' eyebrows.
Authored by Susie Fishbein, editor of the best-selling book The Kosher Palette that
took the gourmet world by storm a few years ago, this is one cookbook
that is out to change the image of kosher food forever.
ALREADY A BESTSELLER
The buzz surrounding the publication of Kosher By Design has been tremendous.
24,000 copies sold the first week and a second edition was immediately rushed
into print. It's no wonder that Publisher's Weekly called it "a beautiful
volume that straddles the delicate line between modern and traditional and
between refined cuisine and everyday ease." One look at it, and it's easy
to see how it won this accolade.
Gracious ambience and sophisticated food presentation
play a major role in successful at-home entertaining. To that end, the author
spared no effort in obtaining the services of world-class party planner Renee Erreich and of Larry
Sexton, the florist from Atlas in New York's Plaza hotel, to create spectacular
table decor and floral arrangements. More than 120 magnificent photos by award-winning
photographer John Uher, whose work appears regularly in some of America's most
prestigious food and lifestyle magazines, convey the sumptuous dishes and glistening
wines in settings fit for royalty. The result is a dazzling book of gourmet
glamour.
YOUR BUBBY WILL BE PROUD!
Rivaling the elegance of the table decor are the 250 recipes. Utilizing the
vast and growing list of kosher ingredients available today, the book delights
in taking a traditional dish and giving it a modern spin. It coyly suggests
that Grandma's gefilte fish was very nice, but isn't Tri-Color Gefilte Fish
(using salmon as the striking middle layer) much more interesting? Chicken
is coated with exotic Asian flavors. And matzo balls, stuffed with an outrageous
vegetable filling, will never be the same again.
The best thing about these recipes is that they produce a dish that looks like you've been slaving away
in the kitchen for hours, but really require
a minimum of fuss. If you're a busy professional (and/or a harried, underpaid,
overworked parent!) planning to entertain a few dozen of your kith and kin,
you'll find this book user-friendly and practical. The same is true for the
homemaker who wants the right touch for a special occasion.
First of all, it's comforting to know that every recipe was triple tested before it made it into
the book. Instructions are simple and straightforward,
as are the names of the dishes. There are none of those ambiguous recipes called "Aunt
Dora's Supreme Surprise." You want to cook a rack of lamb? You'll find
a recipe called "Rack of Lamb with Fig-Port-Shallot Sauce." You want
to try your hand at a chocolate pecan pie? You'll find a recipe called just
that.
PRACTICALLY CONSTRUCTED, BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED
The physical construction of the book reflects this no nonsense approach.
A strong, laminated cover and the 7 1/4" x 9 1/4" page size stands
up to kitchen spills and splatters and make it easy to use; and the concealed-wire
binding keeps the open book flat on your kitchen counter. The book is so well
indexed and cross-referenced that locating a specific recipe is a matter of
seconds.
And the "extras" go a long way. Suggested menus for every holiday
and complementary wine lists of new, cutting-edge kosher wines take the worry
out of planning. In addition to a superlative Passover section, there is a
Passover Index indicating modifications for year-round recipes that broadens
the range of Seder possibilities. Savvy cooking tips and crystal clear instructions
make preparation a snap. The author wants you to feel as though your personal "culinary
coach" is standing beside you, talking you through every step of the process.
What does this all add up to? Confidence
in the kitchen — the confidence to whip up a new dish with expertise and
serve it in a grand manner.
Are these recipes
only for special occasions? Well, yes and no. Many of them, such as Herbed
Brown Rice or Greek Pasta Salad are quick to prepare and fit
right into a relaxed meal. In fact, there are several that take store-bought
products and give them that extra touch you'll be proud to serve. But you might
want to reserve the Champagne-poached Salmon with Cream Sauce for a special
holiday feast.
Fortunately, there are many days for feasting enshrined on the
Jewish calendar. The genuine respect for the Jewish traditions that gave
rise to these festive
meals is another valuable asset of this book. Its vibrant approach to the
Jewish holidays is communicated easily in its pages. In addition to presenting
kosher
food to contemporary palates, the book also illuminates the meaning of the
Jewish holidays and the origins of many traditional foods.
Cooking kosher now
has the kind of gourmet potential never dreamed possible in Grandma's day.
Kosher By Design is destined to become a classic simply because
its time has come: the range and quality of kosher ingredients currently available
equals the growing demand for cultured at-home entertaining. No doubt, this
is a cookbook that will find its way into thousands of kitchens, whether or
not they happen to be kosher.